The big picture: PayPal has reported its strongest first quarter in company history as the e-commerce boom continues to pay dividends for the online payments specialist. Best yet, the firm believes the pandemic-fueled shift in consumer spending behavior is here to stay.
For the three-month period ending March 31, 2021, PayPal generated revenue of $6.03 billion, an increase of 29 percent year over year. Net income, meanwhile, reached $1.1 billion with earnings per share of $0.92.
PayPal said it added 14.5 million net new active accounts during the period to end the quarter with 392 million active accounts. Total payment volume hit $285 billion, up 46 percent compared to the same period a year earlier.
Share value in the company popped briefly on the earnings report but has since cooled to pre-report levels.
PayPal is just one of several companies that have thrived during the pandemic. “We believe the shift in consumer digital behavior will remain essentially unchanged in a post-Covid world,” CEO Dan Schulman told analysts.
The firm also benefited from the launch of several new products and services in recent months.
“The new products and services were putting into place like buy-now-pay-later, crypto, the Venmo credit card, those are performing well beyond our expectations,” Schulman added.
Looking ahead, PayPal said it expects revenue to grow to around $6.25 billion in the second quarter.
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